Entrance to Estación Biológica La Gamba; note the luxuriant vegetation behind!
Friend Armin Dett (find him at http://pragmadesign.de/) is a highly talented graphic designer with a strong background in the natural sciences. When he was invited by the University of Vienna to undertake a study and produce a book on the moths of the tropical research station at La Gamba, near Golfito here in Costa Rica, I was fortunate enough to be able to escort him and spend three days there. For those who read German, here is the link to their website: http://www.univie.ac.at/lagamba/researchdb/pagede/index.php Not only did I get to help capture moths at night using ultraviolet light, but I also walked the nearby beautiful forest trails of the Piedras Blancas National Park. Were it not for the sticky tropical climate of the lowlands I would be highly tempted to live in that southern Pacific region of the country.
If you simply want to see the list of species for this excursion, you will find it at the end of this post, which deals almost exclusively with the birds and in any case would never be able to do justice to the interest and beauty of La Gamba and the surrounding area.
Here is the cabin where we stayed:
Our humble abode!
If there’s a signature bird here at La Gamba it has to be the Great Curassow (Crax rubra), the first of my life birds on this trip. Imagine simply the picture above with a male and a female strolling across in front, and Armin and me relaxing on the veranda. Photos from the trip will come later when Armin finishes his assignment at the end of the month. He cannot get his email account going from there.
Male Great Curassow, courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Great_Curassow_%286961685388%29.jpg
Several birds were taken in a mist net by researcher Tobias, who was netting Cherrie’s tanagers for a study on grasshoppers, of which, apparently, they are inordinately fond.
Here too is the link to the adjacent Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, where the management was most kind and helpful and allowed us access to their grounds, which harbour at least three species of kingfisher that didn’t make my list.
http://www.esquinaslodge.com/es/proyectos/investigacion.html
Some comments on the birds observed:
- The Gray-chested dove is a definite misnomer. I was expecting confusion with the White-tipped dove but this bird is unmistakeable because of the delicate pink, diffused crown. What an unexpected beauty!
Gray-chested dove, courtesy of Karel Straatman
- The Charming hummingbird is an understatement. It’s a superb little bird that we saw at very close range at the Esquinas Rainforest Lodge feeding on rabo de gato. The crown and breast colours are much more than charming.
- Two new woodpecker species for me, the Red-rumped being a rare species according to Garrigues and Dean, a new edition of whose bird guide is now available.
- Antbirds are usually the bane of my existence because I never see them. Thus I was particularly pleased to be able to identify four different species, including two life birds; the female Dot-winged antwren is particularly lovely.
Female Dot-winged Antwren, courtesy of Karel Straatman
Can’t resist adding Karel Straatman’s great shot of a Black-hooded Antshrike:
I’d seen the male Black-hooded antshrike before, but never so well
- I was happy to identify immediately and correctly the Northern (previously Thrushlike) schiffornis, which I had never seen before. It perched rather glumly on a small branch right in front of us.
- The Black-bellied wren, though common in this area, was new to me. It’s an endemic here and in western Panama and is striking because of its pure white throat.
- The Black-cheeked ant-tanager is a Costa Rican endemic with a very reduced range; I saw only a male.
- On the other hand, I saw only a female of my first Blue-black grosbeak; this finch is at home in thick forest it seems, but I was quite surprised to find it there on the La Fila Trail.
My list includes only sure identifications; I missed many more! My life birds are marked with an asterisk.
- Great tinamou (voice only)
- Great curassow*
- Gray-headed chachalaca
- Crested guan
- Neotropic cormorant (Río Térraba)
- Bare-throated tiger-heron
- Great egret
- Cattle egret
- Green heron
- White ibis
- Green ibis
- Black vulture
- Turkey vulture
- Roadside hawk
- Crested caracara (near Palmar)
- Yellow-headed caracara
- Gray-necked wood-rail
- White-throated crake (voice only)
- Purple gallinule
- Northern jaçana
- Pale-vented pigeon
- Ruddy ground-dove
- White-tipped dove
- Gray-chested dove*
- Orange-chinned parakeet
- White-crowned parrot
- Red-lored parrot
- Smooth-billed ani
- Common pauraque
- White-collared swift
- Stripe-throated hermit
- Long-billed hermit
- Charming hummingbird*
- Rufous-tailed hummingbird
- Violet-headed hummingbird
- Gartered trogon (voice only)
- Belted kingfisher
- Chestnut-mandibled toucan
- Golden-naped woodpecker*
- Red-crowned woodpecker
- Red-rumped woodpecker*
- Streak-headed woodcreeper
- Black-hooded antshrike
- Dusky antbird*
- Bare-crowned antbird* (male)
- Dot-winged antwren (females)
- Yellow tyrannulet
- Greenish elaenia
- Common tody-flycatcher
- Ochre-bellied flycatcher
- Bright-rumped attila (voice only)
- Western wood-pewee (voice also)
- Yellow-bellied flycatcher (mist net)
- Great crested flycatcher
- Great kiskadee
- Social flycatcher
- Gray-capped flycatcher
- Tropical kingbird
- Northern schiffornis*
- Orange-collared manakin (wing pops)
- Red-capped manakin
- Yellow-throated vireo
- Mangrove swallow (Río Térraba)
- Barn swallow
- Riverside wren
- Plain wren
- Black-bellied wren*
- House wren
- Clay-colored thrush
- Tennessee warbler
- Golden-winged warbler
- Yellow warbler
- Chestnut-sided warbler
- Black-and-white warbler
- Mourning warbler
- Bananaquit
- Black-cheeked ant-tanager* (male)
- Summer tanager
- Cherrie’s tanager
- Blue-gray tanager
- Palm tanager
- Green honeycreeper (female, mist net)
- Variable seedeater
- Blue-black grassquit
- Black-striped sparrow
- Buff-throated saltator
- Blue-black grosbeak* (female)
- Baltimore oriole
- Scarlet-rumped cacique
- Yellow-billed cacique
- Yellow-crowned euphonia
This is a provisional posting until Armin is able to supply me with photos from the trip.
Birds for Beer 
